What Were You Expecting?

For anyone who reads on a semi-regular basis, you would think stopping in at No Owens today you would get a dosage of one of two things: Tennessee Vols football or Brett Favre. Because I need closure, we are going to go with the Vols.

Before we do, back to Favre. The first record of many is one that truly tells us how great he is. More wins than any other starter is proven longevity and consistent success. A commitment to excellence from Favre, which seemingly isn't coming from today's main event.

I can sit here and complain all I want. I can tell you how awful of a place Gainesville is. I can tell you about the people there and their commitment to wearing jerseys and cargo or jeans shorts. I can tell you what I think about the level of class the head football coach brings to the field.

Right now, I'm going to tell you how good the Florida Gators are. That is an unbelievable football program that Urban Meyer has put together in terms of putting a team on the field with speed, intensity, and talent. The team that I saw in person this past weekend...I don't know who's going to beat them. I mean, USC can't beat them. The LSU/Florida matchup is without a doubt the best game of the year. They are without any doubt the two best teams around. And Florida is only going to get better as the season goes on. Oklahoma might be able to make a shot at them, but if that team that played the Vols Saturday shows up every week, this is going to be a miserable season for just about anyone out there.

I talked about this a few posts ago...that Meyer is great because he finds ways to get his players on the field. Trust me, I watched these plays develop. His offense is not complicated. If it was, they would have all these check-down calls going on at the line, and freshman QB's would never see the light of the field. Their plays do the following: isolate one defensive player and if he does one thing you throw the ball one way...if he does another, throw it to the other guy. Because it isn't as complicated as one would think, Meyer can get his players to learn the system quickly and it puts the pressure on the quarterback to make the right decision. This is why you see an influx of you kids playing...they don't need to be rocket scientists...the quarterback has the responsibility to make a read and deliver the ball, that's it.

This being said, Meyer can easily get his playmakers on the field. It creates matchup problems. I remember seeing a play develop coming right at us in the corner of the endzone with Vol OLB Ryan Karl trying to cover Percy Harvin. If Webster was going to rewrite his book of words, he would choose that to define mismatch. Put your best players on the field, don't ask much out of them until they get the ball...then ask them to do what they were put on this earth to do. It's a winning combination. Can't you tell?

Aside from Emmitt Smith, Fred Taylor is the next greatest offensive player to come out of Florida and be successful in the NFL in the past 15-20 years. I don't think anyone in Gainesville is complaining. They aren't in the business of getting kids ready to play at the next level. They are in the business of winning collegiate championships. That's the correct focus.

Now, how does one learn from this? Mike Hamilton has been a solid Athletic Director for Tennessee. He's made Tennessee's basketball team into what everyone will see this year as an elite team. He's committed to putting winners out there to "Give their all for Tennessee." I'm sick of hearing the coaches talk about so and so "playing hard," or he "left it out there today." I'll tell you what they left out there: missed third down opportunities, they left a lot of tackles out there, along with blown coverages. One thing they didn't leave? Heart. There was no passion left on that field, at least from what I could see. There was no intensity, no leadership. No fire. There was one white guy on the Florida kickoff team that came out every time and I felt like he looked me in the eye and gave me the Gator Chomp. Where is that from our players?

They are poorly motivated. They are poorly disciplined. They have no respect for their program because they can walk their way through classes and know coach is going to take care of them. The upper classmen can just hold onto their jobs because they know if they start one game, they are shoe in's until the end of their career. If they carried the intensity that their fans bring to the stadium to pay their money to watch them play, they would be better off. I looked a whole lot more dejected after that game than Arian Foster. I didn't fumble away our chance at getting into that game with a shot to win. He should be so devastated that he should be embarrassed to show his face. And he should be so motivated to never let it happen again that when he coughed up the bowl game last year, he should have vowed that with the game on the line, that wouldn't happen in Gainesville. Irony.

You know, I can talk about the athletes that aren't seeing the field. UT goes out and gets Junior College players as they are supposed to be ready to make an immediate impact. But the head football coach is too loyal to his players, even if they can't get it done. Forget all of that. The key to being a leader is having people believe in you. That comes with respect and respect comes from setting an example. What example is the head football coach at the University of Tennessee setting by conceding the game in the 4th quarter and letting that scumbag of a coach showboat around already up 20+ points? He's setting a perfect example...the example for the guy who's leading the Tennessee program in 2008 of what NOT to do.